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Walworth looks at new town hall

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

The exterior of the Walworth Town Hall

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

The cramped Walworth Town Hall is attached to the garage, which is also cramped and houses the road supervisor's office in the front corner. Above the road supervisor's desk is the only place for storage for the town hall.

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

The cramped quarters of the Walworth Town Hall.

WALWORTH — The Walworth Town Hall is cramped, and town officials are working on plans to build a bigger facility.

"We've flat run out of room," said Joe Abell, town chairman. "We just don't have enough room on the administrative end or the maintenance end."

The 3,360-square-foot town hall was built in 1979. The hall, garage and parking lot sit on about two-thirds of an acre.

The clerk and chairman share the only office in the town hall. The treasurer, assessor and building inspector don't have offices. The only workspace for the two town supervisors is a large table in the middle of the main room.

"They're (town officials) taking things home that should be left here to do," Abell said.

About two dozen metal folding chairs are all the seats available for residents at meetings. If there's a public hearing that's expected to draw a lot of people, the meeting is moved to the nearby elementary school, he said.

In the town garage, which is attached to the town hall, road maintenance vehicles are parked side-by-side, practically butting up against the road supervisor's desk.

"You can hardly walk in here," Abell said.

There's so little space that lawn mowers and other seasonal equipment are stored at nearby farms, he said, and because there's no place to store salt and sand, the town hasn't received its full winter orders for the last two years.

The parking lot isn't big enough to accommodate vehicles during elections, and there isn't a place for residents to drop off downed tree limbs, brush and leaves for composting, he said.

"It's all very inadequate," Abell said.

Town officials have been talking about the need for a new town hall for years, but the current town board is the first taking steps to make it happen.

"We finally realized it was time—past time," Abell said.

Residents at the annual meeting in April 2008 gave town officials permission to look into building a new town hall, he said, and since then, town officials have talked with an architect and contractors to get an idea of how much a new building would cost.

Late last year, town officials asked Kikkoman if the soy sauce maker headquartered in the township would be interested in helping, Abell said.

Kikkoman agreed to donate 5 to 7 acres on Brick Church Road northwest of its manufacturing plant.

"We've always tried to be a good neighbor, and we've gotten so much support from the town over the many years we've been here, it just seemed like a good fit," said Dan Miller, vice president of administration at Kikkoman. "It's something that benefits the whole community."

Kikkoman owns about 195 acres at the intersection of Brick Church and Six Corners roads. The company occupies less than one-third of that land, and the rest is rented out for farming, Miller said.

The town would take ownership of the land after plans for a new town hall are firm, Abell said.

Town officials are working to come up with costs and a basic design, and Abell said he would like to see the project come in under $500,000. He hopes to have a presentation ready by the end of the summer.

So far, the response from people has been positive, he said.

"But we haven't been talking about money, yet," Abell said.

The town is well positioned to take on such a capital project, he said. It doesn't have any debt and it doesn't have any big equipment purchases looming.

"If we get the land donated, and if we can sell this building (for a good price), that'll be a big dent in what the cost originally would have been," he said. "With all that, we should be able to get down underneath there."